Classi Conversations with Kathleen Winter

Kathleen Winter speaks with Jamie Tennant on her book Undersong

A stunning novel from the Giller-shortlisted author Kathleen Winter, who reimagines the lost years of misunderstood Romantic Era genius Dorothy Wordsworth. Often misunderstood as a footnote in literary history, UNDERSONG pushes back against historical narratives that downplay Dorothy Wordsworth’s massive role in the literary movement usually attributed to her male contemporaries, including her brother, poet William Wordsworth. Through the fictional voice of James Dixon and the transcendent imagination of Kathleen Winter, we step inside the Wordsworth family. But Winter also weaves a darker, complex “undersong” through the novel, gradually bringing into the light Dorothy’s rich and hidden life, and revealing the surprising meaning and effect of her tragically unacknowledged brilliance.